Oh, God. I'm tired. Science Fair has really taken my ability to stay up out of me. I was going to go to bed earlier, but I wanted to give this chapter to you guys first, since I love you so much. Feel free to review any time. Just so you know. I like them :)

Oh, and hey. Just so you guys know, I'm a betareader now! Yay me!

Chapter Nineteen

Iggy

Even after all this time of walking with Max to Ella's school, I still couldn't figure out why she was so frigging slow! I mean, I'd be better off to walk with a freaking turtle, for God's sake!

Of course, turtles weren't very good with directions. And that was pretty much the only reason that I brought Max with me every day.

Silently, we walked just under two miles to Ella's school and waited in the parking lot. It was getting cool now, as it was mid-October. Or at least, as cool as it could get for Arizona. It was still about 80 degrees, but that's better than the 90+ of September or the close to 100 of August. I could still feel the pavement burning under my feet.

"Iggy," Ella said when she came near to me. "Let's get out of here."

I could hear the nervousness in her tone. Honestly, I felt pretty nervous as well. I had an even worse feeling than I usually did standing around in the school parking lot. I didn't know why, but I did.

"Alright," I said. "C'mon, Max." I started walking back in the direction we'd come from. I could hear Max's and Ella's footsteps behind me. At least, I was pretty sure that they were Max's and Ella's footsteps behind me. I listened to the footsteps for maybe half of the way back, but wasn't sure I was at least half right until Ella grabbed my hand.

That was when everything around me stopped.

Max and Ella stopped walking, no one was talking. I could barely even hear the cars on the road a little ways away.

Then, one deep, menacing voice broke through the silence. "Hey, Ella, long time no see," it said.

"We've been waiting for you," a second guy said, just a little less deep and menacing. "We couldn't get you alone, but we just couldn't wait for you anymore."

Oh shit, I thought. It's those guys.

"Oh, for God's sake, not you yahoos again," Max said.

"Hi there, Bullet," Ella said. "It's been a while, yeah."

"Don't talk shit with us, Martinez. You know why we're here, and you know what we want," the first guy, who I assumed was Bullet, said.

"Yeah," the second guy chuckled. "We want you. Alone." He drew out the word alone so that it turned out more like 'Aye-loon' then 'Alone.' The guy was obviously completely stoned.

"Where's Killer?" Ella asked. "I thought you guys always hunted in packs."

She was being so brave. Her voice never quivered once. She wasn't projecting any fear from what I could feel, standing just beside her, one hand lightly touching her arm.

Bullet was silent for a minute before saying, "He couldn't be here right now. He had other…plans." I could almost see his nasty, yellowed smile as he said the word. I grabbed Ella's wrist.

"Unless you guys want to get your asses kicked into the next state, I would get out of here," I said.

"Wow," Bullet said. "Check out that kid's eyes. Are you, like, blind, kid?"

I bit my lip. "What does it matter? I don't need my eyes to kick your ass."

That is why Max is the trash-talker.

"Whatever," Bullet said. "I don't like havin' and audience for doin' what I'm gonna do to Ella. Ace, take out the chick and the blind kid."

"You're going to regret that," Max said. I could feel every muscle in my body buzzing, preparing for the fight.

"Iggy?" Ella whispered beside me. "Just…don't get hurt, okay?"

I squeezed her arm where I was still holding it. "Okay."

I could hear the second guy, Ace's footsteps coming toward me. He was practically in front of me before Max shouted, "Now!"

I kicked up my foot and hit him approximately in the gut. His breath blew out of him with a loud woof. He was obviously still shocked that he'd gotten kicked in the stomach by a blind kid, because he made no attempt at retaliation. I punched him in the face as best I could. He was out of his shock now, because he let out an animal-like growl and came back at me.

Listening carefully, I heard his left fist coming right toward my right ear. I was about to duck when Ella screamed, "Iggy!" Without thinking, I turned my head toward her, then took the fist in my eye.

Have I ever said that women were going to be the death of me?

Now you know why.

I heard Ella's sharp intake of breath mingling with mine, and I decided I was going to ignore her for the rest of this fight.

"Hah!" Ace exclaimed. "Got you, you little shit!"

I punched him again, aiming for his chin but hitting his nose instead. I heard the crack, indicating it had broken.

"Wow," Max mused from beside me. "I did exactly the same thing to this guy. Why are their chins so damn hard to hit?"

Now that I knew where his nose was, and 'Ace' was too busy with it to pay attention, I pulled back and swung another punch, this time connecting solidly with his jaw.

"That's better," Max and I both said simultaneously. We continued beating the crap out of Ace and Bullet. They fought back hard, but we were better. We'd spent the majority of our lives fighting Erasers. We could take on these guys no problem.

That thought triggered others in my head. "Max? Doesn't their fighting style seem kind of…familiar?" I asked.

"Um, yeah, actually." Ace kicked me in the stomach and I slid back about a foot, sputtering to regain my breath. "They're kind of like…Erasers."

"Hold true to the #1 rule, Max," I said. "If they look like Erasers and they fight like Erasers…" I heard a fist whizzing at my head and ducked. Max continued.

"Even if they aren't Erasers…"

"Kill them like Erasers," we finished in sync. I got Ace again, hooking him under the chin and throwing his head back. He fell to the ground.

No, he wasn't dead, just seriously in pain.

"Want to know another thing about Erasers?" I asked Max.

"Do tell," she said.

"They hardly ever come after us in twos."

Just as I finished saying it, a high-pitched, agonizing scream came from behind me. Max and I both turned around at the same time.

"Oh, God!" Max exclaimed.

"What!" I nearly shrieked.

"There was another guy!" Max gasped. "And he had a knife!"

"Ella!" I screamed.

"You take care of him, I'll finish with these yo-yos," Max said. "They're about 12 feet, Northeast."

I could feel my fury burning through my veins, pulling me toward the bastard who attacked Ella. I ran at him with all I had. I hit him head-on, catching him off-guard and knocking him to the ground. I punched him with alternating fists, trying with all my will to damage him permanently. When he let out a groan, I stopped hitting him, but instead slammed his head against the pavement with as much force as I could muster.

"That's what you get for attacking my girl," I whispered in his ear. "Next time, it'll be worse."

I knew he was probably unconscious and couldn't hear me, but it gave me some satisfaction knowing that he'd gotten a warning if he lived.

I turned away from the guy on the ground and crawled across the ground toward Ella. I found her and pulled her against me. I put one hand behind her head and one on her cheek. God, she was so pale.

"Ella," I whispered, hoping against hope that she would answer. "Ella, say something to me."

"You…killed him?" she said, though it was little more than a breath. I shook my head.

"I don't think so," I said. I moved my hand from her cheek to her back. It took a moment before I could feel the warm scarlet pouring onto my hand. She was bleeding hard.

"Max!" I shouted.

"Get her out of here!" she grunted as she swung another kick at Bullet.

Without thinking, without caring about the rules, ignore all the warning bells going off in my head, I unfurled my wings and took off into the sky, holding Ella close to my body. I flew all the way back to the Martinez house, knowing where it would be, and dropped onto the lawn, rushing into the place I'd called home for two years.